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Human Rights

The Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) followed up intensely the Israeli violations against the Palestinian farmers to expose the brutality of the occupation to the local and international world. In addition, UAWC supported the affected Palestinian farmers and their families to strengthen their resilience on land – the land of the parents and grandparents. The violations mentioned in the report are just a part of the Israeli violations against the Palestinian agricultural sector for not all of the violations are reported and documented.

In the first six months of 2015, the Israeli army and Israeli settlers uprooted more than 9910 trees most of them were olive trees. In comparison the total number of trees uprooted in 2014 was 9400. Thus, there is a tangible increase in the number of trees uprooted in 2015. Other statistics of the first six months of 2015 include: settler violence recorded reached 95 incidents, Palestinian-owned structures demolished in the West Bank reached 280 structures, and violations in Access Restricted Area (ARA) reached at least 370 incidents. Download and read the Semi Annual Report

In the first week of May 2015, the Israeli Occupation's high court confirmed its approval to the Israeli military army to demolish the entire Palestinian village of Susia to the south of Hebron, thus forcibly displace all of its residents (approximately 350 individuals).

UAWC calls for the immediate international intervention to freeze this brutal Israeli occupation's order. Raise your voice to say NO to: land confiscation for establishing illegal settlements, forcible displacements, trees uprooting, physical and verbal assaults, and demolition of agricultural properties.

La Via Campesina Release, April 7th, 2015

La Via Campesina is extremely concerned about the situation in the Yarmouk Palestinian Refugee Camp in southern Damascus

La Via Campesina has been watching recent reports of the invasion of the Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk by extremist armed forces with great concern. It comes at a time when the camp is suffering from a two-year siege on it. We are extremely worried about the well being of our friends and partners in the food sovereignty projects on the ground, who have been targeted by armed forces. The recent targeted execution of civil society activist Firas Al Naji—a founder of food sovereignty projects in Yarmouk (which aim to ease the suffering of a community living with severe malnutrition due to the siege), among other initiatives—is a dark example of the grave situation that civil society faces. We are also deeply concerned for the safety of Abdullah Al Khateeb and other human rights rights defenders targeted by militant groups. The threat against all of these active members of civil society is massive, and we do not want to stand quietly aside while they and their community are targeted.

(Harare, March 27, 2015) La Via Campesina International expresses its condemnation of the following acts of criminalisation and persecution of social protest that have taken place very recently:

The attempted murder of Gene Santos, a communications advisor for the the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) of Brazil. The incident took place in Tamboril, on the night of March 13th, when Mr. Santos was returning to his home in the settlement of “Monte Alegre”. He was shot at several times by a single person, but was able to escape unharmed.

A death threat against João Pedro Stedile, who is also a member of the MST as well as a leader of La Via Campesina at the international level. A notice was sent via social media asking for “Stedile alive or dead” and describing him as a leader of the MST and an “enemy of the homeland”. The writer offered a reward of 10,000 reales to whoever responded to his request. In this way, the assassination of the campesino leader is being encouraged with the promise of payment for killing him.

Condemning the Use of Violence against the Poor to Protect the Capitalists’ Interests

(Thailand, February 14, 2015) On 3 February 2015 Mr. Pianrat Boonrit, the president of an agricultural cooperative, a member of Southern Peasant Federation of Thailand, was summoned by the military for attitude adjustment and detained in a jail in Vibhavadirangsit Military Camp in Surat Thani Province until 5 February 2015. On the same evening the military demolished Permsab Community (a member of the agricultural cooperative, the Southern Peasant Federation of Thailand). The community locates in Chaiyaburi District in Surat Thani Province. The community members are struggling for land rights. They held a vigil not allowing the capitalist to enter and harvest oil palms in a national reserved forest of which the concession was expired for 14 years. Later on 11 February 2015 Mr. Chai Boonthonglek, age 61, also a member of the Federation was shot dead.

Yesterday (13 February 2015), the joint armed force of police and military officers guarded a private company’s transportation of the drilling equipment into Ban Na-moon Village, Doon Sad Sub-district, Kra-nuan District in Khonkaen Province to install the drilling rig. The drilling is continuously opposed by local people. Even the National Reform Council, hand-picked by National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) itself, voted 130 to 79 against the petroleum concession policy. But the NCPO does not listen and is stubbornly determined to use violence to clear the path for the capitalists.

(Zimbabwe, Harare, January 28, 2015) Via Campesina International expresses its solidarity with the Honduran peasant movement following the violent attack on the offices of Via Campesina in Honduras, which took place in the early morning of January 25th. We deplore in the strongest terms the systematic violence which the Honduran peasant movement faces every day, and which has worsened since the coup d’etat that took place in 2009.

This new attempt to deter the peasant movement from its struggles and its conquests took place as follows:

1. On Monday January 25th, 2015, a contingent of men armed with heavy weapons fired more than two dozen shots into the building housing the offices of La Via Campesina in Honduras.

2. At the site of the crime, there are gunshot holes in the walls and doors and empty bullet shells. La Vía Campesina Honduras reports that similar incidents took place during the period of the coup d’etat in 2009; as of this time, no one has been found responsible for those incidents.